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The NBPA hasn’t done the best job of managing their PR front. David Stern has done his damnedest to control the public message of the lockout, all while the factions that have reportedly formed among the players threaten to decertify the union entirely and rip the 2011-2012 season apart. Yet individually, the lockout has provided…

J.J. Hickson is not going to go down in history as one of the legends of Israeli basketball. The Sacramento Kings forward played one game for Bnei Hasharon of Israel but has been released after one game because he was late for a couple practices. Practice? Yes, we’re talkin’ ’bout practice. Noam Schiller, writer for…

Back in 1998, during the last NBA lockout that cost regular season games, Michael Jordan the player stood up to then Wizards owner Abe Polin and said “If you can’t make a profit, you should sell your team.” Now, 13 years later and on the other side of the table, Jordan can’t make a profit…

It’s one of the more interesting questions around the NBA right now: If a full NBA season is lost, what do you do about next year’s draft? It’s not really fair to go with the same order or even same lottery as last year — why should Minnesota be rewarded again for being bad two…

Thursday night marked the 2011 D-League Draft, and to little surprise, proven NBAer Jamaal Tinsley went first overall to the L.A. D-Fenders. As much as the league itself is concerned with developing talent, a player of Tinsley’s caliber held obvious appeal to what is, first and foremost, an actual basketball organization. The D coaches up…

When he’s not trying to decertify the union, we know Paul Pierce loves to go bowling. The man hosts the annual “The Truth Strikes Again” celebrity bowling event every year, you don’t do that if you can’t knock down some pins. But where does Pierce practice? In his home. On some sweet lanes. He tweeted…

It’s the paradox of perception during the NBA lockout — the NBA players have offered to give the NBA owners $1 billion back in salary over the life of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Yet ask a casual fan and they will tell you the players are the greedy ones (or, more often, that both…

Dwight Howard has some pull. For his Nov. 13 charity game in Orlando Howard has brought in some big names to thrill the crowd — like Penny Hardaway. (That’s big Penny, not ‘lil Penny.) And some to remind them of old wounds — hello Vince Carter and Steve Francis. The Orlando Sentinel has the lineups…

I really don’t know Larry Brown, but if you asked me if he wanted to coach in the NBA again I would have said yes. From his deathbed Brown will be trying to find a way back into the NBA coaching ranks. Right now, that means reaching out to Doc Rivers in Boston and saying…

In some kind of lockout nightmare by Sterling Cooper Draper Price, Magic Johnson has teamed up with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. To shoot smart phones as if they were basketballs. And sell home loans. All done with extra cheese. It’s all part of a new Quicken Loans ad (that’s the company where Gilbert made enough…

Decertification of the union has been something some agents have pushed for from the start, and it appears that those same agents had a heavy hand in this week’s players decertification talks behind the players’ backs. Names have started to leak out of who was on the call from several sources. Paul Pierce and Dwyane…

Rick Carlisle pulled a trick out of the Miami Heat’s Pat Riley’s playbook to win the NBA finals. Back in 2006, the Miami Heat were up 3-2 and heading back for a Game 6 in Dallas. Then Heat coach Riley told his players to only pack enough clothes for one game’s stay — they were…

On one side, you have a group of renegade players threatening decertification of the union — threatening to blow up any chance of this season if the owners don’t give in. The owners don’t want to lose a full season and they feared decertification enough to file a pre-emptive lawsuit to block it. On the…

In case you thought sanity might encroach on the NBA labor talks, we bring you this report: A group of hardline NBA players, about 50, participated in a conference call this week behind the back of union leadership, reports both the New York Times and Yahoo. The upshot of the mid-week call is that if…

This could be really good or really bad. Every time a large group of owners and players have gotten together during the NBA labor talks things have gone about as well as the last Hindenburg voyage. It’s always Kevin Garnett or Paul Allen or something that messes it up. That said, eventually a large group…

More good stuff from Sports Illustrated’s Zach Lowe: Jamal Crawford is a confounding player. He has a fairly high-profile, takes the sort of difficult crunch-time jumpers that make highlight reels and just looks the part of a dynamic NBA player. LeBron James and LaMarcus Aldridge have both recruited Crawford, an impending free agent, via Twitter the…

You can make the economic case that the money not spent in Orlando on Magic games starting this week will still find it’s way into the economy. No doubt that is right on a macro level. Basketball tickets are discretionary income and if you’re not spending the money on tickets your spending it on movies…

After every National Basketball Players Association meeting of any size, union leadership and players have stood together and preached unity. Often wearing matching T-shirts, because nothing says unity like matching clothing. But this time the symbolism and words were needed. With players smacking union leadership publicly and signs of division everywhere, the union’s executive committee…

Sports Illustrated’s Zach Lowe recently did a great interview with forward Aaron Afflalo, who is a free agent after four seasons with Detroit and Denver. Here are a few highlights: SI.com: The Nuggets have had a crazy offseason, with Nene about to be an unrestricted free agent and three different free agents (J.R. Smith, Kenyon…

UPDATE 4:58 pm: Union VP Roger Mason Jr. — he of “how u” fame — has confirmed that talks will resume on Saturday, according to a tweet from Chris Manix of Sports Illustrated. Mason was also ringing the “union is unified” bell loud in every interview today. He says there was no real divide there.…